Introduction: This paper was written to discuss the hot button topic, “Black Lives Matter.” Specifically, in regard to law enforcement. This has been an ongoing and controversial issue ever since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. This is when the movement “Black Lives Matter,” was born, with the belief that blacks are treated unfairly by law enforcement. I, however, do not believe that blacks are treated any more unfairly by law enforcement than any other race. Opposing arguments: Police brutality is one of the main issues that BLM in concerned with. Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and several others are examples of individuals BLM claims have been wrongfully killed by the hands of law enforcement. These individuals were supposedly innocent and therefore killed unjustly. Black suspects are more likely to be shot due to the fear of being in possession of a weapon. In addition, they believe inequality exists in regards to white verse black police shootings based off of racism. Another concern of the BLM movement is that more blacks are arrested than any other race. They feel that even though blacks commit no more crimes than other races, …show more content…
According to Heather McDonald of the Manhattan Institute, “While only 23% of New York city’s population is black, 75% of shootings, 70% of robberies, and 66% of all violent crimes are committed by blacks. It is interesting to note that although blacks have been shown to use less drugs than other races, they attribute to a higher number of crimes associated with those drugs. Aside from the crimes they actually commit, blacks are generally less cooperative when dealing with law enforcement. In my experiences as a law enforcement officer I personally believe that if blacks would cooperate more rather than resist, there would be less
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” declared Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. Over fifty years later, allegations of injustice remain at the forefront of our nation’s discussions regarding unnecessary shootings, excessive use of force and alleged unprovoked violence towards black males in disproportionate amounts to white males. There is little dispute that police use excessive force in certain situations; however, through research and examining statistics can we determine if there is actual bias in policing, whether such bias plays a role in the use of force in encounters with black males, or if the use of force is actual proper police technique with no application to the race of the arrestee?
A black boy born today in the U.S has a life expectancy five years shorter than that of a white boy. Black students are significantly less likely to attend schools offering advanced math and science courses than white students. There are three times as likely to be suspended and expelled, setting them up for educational failure. Black men in their 20s without a high school diploma are more likely to be incarcerated than employed. This list could go on, but the idea here is that African Americans are still struggling to be on equal footing with Caucasians. Because of the harsh treatment in the past and the injustice that is still occurring, many black people are still fearful of being stigmatized. The police force are there to protect everyone, but when police officers intentionally choose which groups they are going to protect, they become authority figures that we cannot
The only thing that makes the police really mad is the death of a fellow police member. This causes a downward spiral of violence because then it seems to the black First they were slaves of our Founding Fathers and now they are creators of evil and destruction in our very own country. Today they are a source of entertainment, we have them entertaining us on TV, playing sports like football, basketball, and baseball. We criticize them for their play style and terrible plays, when we all know that we could have done far better since we have the superior white skin color.
Reynolds, J. & Co., 2015. Many feel that Black Lives Matter is only causing more hate and violence through their protest. The BLM believes, however, that racial bias among police officers is at an all-time high and that their fight is reasonable. The BLM argues they are simply seeking equality for blacks. Their website page states, “We are committed to embodying and practicing justice, liberation, and peace in our engagements with one another.
Black men were nine times more likely than American killed by a policeman in 2015. African Americans between the ages 15 and 34 were 15% more likely killed by a policeman. Blacks were 5 times higher deaths than whites by police officers. One out of 65 young African American killed by US police.Brittany Packnett said,“This epidemic is disproportionately affecting black people” (Swa). Black men are higher at dying than whites from cancer, homicide, heart disease, and AIDS. From 1999 to 2014 the black men suicide numbers had declined. Blacks numbers of homicide had decreased by 40% since 1995 to 2013, meanwhile, there is a 28% drop in whites. Cancer for whites is 20% where the blacks had a 29%. Why are blacks having a worse outcome than whites is it because hospitals did not want to treat blacks now or why? Why is black history worse than whites?Blacks are 15 less than whites in life expansion. Dr. Sampson said, “There are all kinds of negative consequences that flow from violence, in emotional responses, cognitive development, and links to future violent behavior” (Tav). Nine black people had died in a church at Charleston, South Carolina. Black people are at higher risk of homicide than white people. The data of not- Hispanic white Americans are 2.5 per 100,000 people. The on-Hispanic black American is 19.4 per 100,000 people. Why are black Americans more likely to be killed by homicide versus white Americans?Why are we having these
In these protests, Black Lives Matter allows growth to happen to the marginalized groups by showing what the actual message means in the Black Lives Matter movement. While Blue Lives Matter protests about how all police are not brutal, Black Lives Matter enlightens them that they are protest for justice. One misinterpretation of Blue Lives Matter from Black Lives Matter is that Black Lives Matter is saying every officer is bad and not doing their job, but Black Lives Matter simply wants justice for those who have fatally fallen. In a protest, All Lives Matter tries to tell Black Lives Matter protestors that they are singling out blacks. The Black Lives Matter group will tell anyone in the All Lives Matter group that all lives do matter, but they need justice for black lives. The Black Lives Matter group tries to enlighten these marginalized groups that their message is a call for
In the United States police brutality has been a issue that has been existing for a long time, but it is getting worst every year. No matter what city it is, police officers are the biggest fear to Hispanic and African-American communities. In this paper, I'm going to talk about the history of police brutality, analyze divergent viewpoints and what can be done to stop it. Police brutality is a serious and important issue because nowadays there's a lot of cases where a police officer seriously injures or shoots someone for no good reason. Police brutality violates the 8th amendment because they don’t have the right to punish someone in a cruel and unusual way. Police officer's job is to protect the community not to be feared by them. Therefore
Police brutality on citizens are one of the immediate issues associated with the police force, since it has marked its presence deep in the roots of history. Pennsylvania State University describes police brutality as, “the deliberate use of excessive force, usually physical, carried out during law enforcement activities with the population.” The dependency of law abiding citizens on officers are now intertwined with an ominous sense of mistrust towards the law enforcers. Several violent instances of police misconduct and brutality has surfaced, igniting anger within American communities, leading to the creation of revolutionary campaigns such as the “Black Lives Matter” campaign that advocates for rebuilding the Black liberation movement (Blacklivesmatter.com). With the media focus centered on police forces, the White House has repetitively tried
50 percent of the victims of fatal police shootings were white, while 26 percent were black (Bandler). Much of the American society would argue that percentages and statistics for black people versus white people fatalities are irrelevant because the majority of the American population is made up of the white race. That fact is true, but in 2009, statistics from the Bureau of Justice reveal that blacks were charged with 62 percent of robberies, 57 percent of murders, and 45 percent of assaults in the 75 largest counties in the country, despite only comprising roughly 15 percent of the population in these counties (Bandler). Granted that the majority of the population in the United States consists of white citizens does not change the fact that the African American race commits a large portion of the crimes in America. Recently in a Hillsdale speech, Heather Mac Donald tells people, "The black violent crime rate would actually predict that more than 26 percent of police victims would be black...Officer use of force will occur where the police interact most often with violent criminals, armed suspects, and those resisting arrest, and that is in black neighborhoods” (Bandler). This has nothing to do with racism, but all to do with where crimes happen the most often, and it
Research shows that there is still a problem of racism and segregation toward African-Americans along with cultural and racial contrasts in the attitudes of blacks towards law enforcement (Huggins, 2012). Seventy-five percent of blacks believe that law enforcement treats them unfairly compared to whites (Weitzer & Tuch, 2005). The majority of whites (77%) thinks that law enforcement treats everyone fairly (Weitzer & Tuch, 2005). Moreover, race is still viewed as a factor that causes minorities injustice in the criminal justice system (Huggins, 2012). Therefore, blacks’ perception of law enforcement can be created when interacting or observing police conduct. Blacks compared to Whites are cautious and do not trust law enforcement. Furthermore,
The fact that more whites are killed by police officers than blacks is enough to go off but the statistics I presented have helped back this statement to. I believe that a vast majority of people who support Black lives matter campaign and their sympathizes are ignorant to the situation at hand and are all just tagging along the band wagon. As a result of this campaign police officers are now reluctant to police neighbourhoods in fear that they’re going to be labeled racists, how does this in anyway make anyone feel safe to know that in the first three months of 2016 that twice as many police officers are victims to fatal shootings than citizens. With murderers running around in your street and less police to risk their lives for the safety of you and your family because of a stupid concept that has ignorant followers and twisted media perspectives. Ignorant ideas implanted in your mind, it is easier to blame police than your race or yourself. Police are not racist, but is it possible that you
Protests around the world have taken place to fight for justice in the black community. The immense number of deaths of unarmed black men and women is a clear sign that they are more likely to be killed by police than white people. Physical violence and excessive use of force by the U.S. police towards African Americans are seen in the news regularly. “People, including police officers, hold strong implicit associations between blacks, and probably Hispanics, and weapons, crime and aggression," said Jack Glaser. Police brutality statistics show that African Americans are three times more likely to be murdered by cops than any other race. Racial disparity in the United States is a coherent reason for the increase of criminal injustice in the United
After Zimmerman was acquitted, protest erupted across the United States. The protestors were calling for justice for the slain teen, Trayvon Martin. People voiced their outrage via traditional local marching and social media. As soon as the verdict was announced, Alicia Garza, a worker’s activist immediately posted on Facebook, “Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter.” From this phrase spawned the controversial term, Black Lives Matter. Patrisse Cullers, a friend and fellow activist of Alicia was the one who actually post the Black Lives Matter hash tag.
BLM regularly organizes protests around the deaths of black people in killings by law enforcement officers, and broader issues of racial profiling, police brutality, and racial inequality in the United States criminal justice system. They are working to rebuild the Black liberation movement. Black Lives Matter goes beyond the narrow nationalism that can be seen within Black communities. It doesn’t merely call on black people to love black, live black, and buy black. Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of black queer and trans-gendered folks, black people with disabilities, undocumented blacks, folks with records, women, and all black lives along the gender spectrum. Rooted in the experiences of black people in this country who actively resist our de-humanization, Black Lives Matter is a call to action and a response to the virulent anti-Black racism that permeates our society .It is a unique contribution that goes beyond extrajudicial killings of Black people by police and vigilantes. The Black Lives Matter movement was created in 2012 after Trayvon Martin’s murderer by George Zimmerman, who was acquitted for his crime, while dead 17-year old Trayvon was placed on trial for his own murder. Black Lives Matter became nationally recognized for the street demonstrations following the 2014 deaths of two African American young males: Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York City. Since Ferguson, many other African Americans deaths have been protested by the movement, including Tamir Rice, Eric Harris, Walter Scott, Jonathan Ferrell, Sandra Bland, Samuel DuBose and Freddie Gray. In the Summer of 2015, Black Lives Matter began to publicly challenge politicians—including politicians in the 2016 United States presidential election—to state their positions on BLM issues. Black
Police are one of the biggest problems with racism today. You don’t see many cops stopping white people as much as black and hispanics. If you watch the news than you can see all of the African Americans that have been shot and killed by white police officers, this all draws way more attention because an African American did it. When white people kill black police officers all the African Americans want to protest that black lives matter too and it causes a huge dispute between